Entrepreneurs Hannah Radu, Lihi Pinto and Eviyatar Shoresh announced last week that they will found an English academy in Israel's social periphery in order to enable young people from these areas to work in Israeli hi-tech companies.
The academy, which will begin operation in Sderot in September 2021, will teach 200 young people who have completed their IDF service and will expand to the Galilee in the future.
Teachers from the hi-tech world will teach young residents of these areas English in order to attempt to close the large gaps between young people in Israel's periphery communities and central Israel. These gaps contribute to the fact that most of Israel's hi-tech workers are not from periphery communities, according to the entrepreneurs.
"This has been a dream of mine for years," said Radu, a social entrepreneur. "I have been working in the periphery since 2011 and from my first year of work, I noticed that knowledge of the English language is a significant block in promoting employment in the periphery and the ability of residents of the periphery to get quality jobs in Israel and the world."
The program is built like a "bootcamp" where those enlisted will learn English for four hours, four times a week for four months. Teachers will include mentors from Silicon Valley and senior employees from Israel's hi-tech sector.
Pinto says that this could be a game changer for the Israeli market. "Imagine a country where you can develop non-technological hi-tech jobs like marketing, sales and customer relations in Israel. It changes the rules of the game and it is possible," said Pinto.
"In order to close gaps in society and enable young people in the periphery to dream and succeed, we must give them practical tools."